Richard Keys resigned and his co-host Andy Gray was sacked by Sky in January 2011. Photograph: Richard Saker

The woman at the centre of the sexism row involving former Sky Sports pundits Richard Keys and Andy Gray has launched a legal action against parent company BSkyB.

Louise Glass, the former partner of Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp, filed legal papers at the high court in London on Thursday, 17 months after Keys and Gray lost their jobs over the controversial comments.

Keys resigned and his co-host Andy Gray was sacked by Sky in January 2011 after leaked footage appeared on YouTube of them making sexist remarks about women.

Keys, now a TalkSport presenter, referred to Glass as "it" and twice asked the former Liverpool footballer Redknapp whether he had "smashed it".

In the leaked footage, a conversation begins with someone off camera mentioning a former girlfriend of Redknapp called Louise. Keys asks Redknapp whether he "smashed it" and the former player replies that he "used to go out with her".

Although Sky Sports did not originally air the footage, BSkyB-owned Sky News replayed the comments after they appeared on YouTube.

Glass told the Sunday Mirror in January last year that the remarks made her feel "awful". "Richard Keys spoke of me like I was some old whore, like I was nothing. I'm not a prude, I've got a sense of humour, but the level of aggression in there was awful," she said. "I wasn't even a whore. I was an 'it'. My life has turned upside down and now I'm paying the price for their slapstick."

She added: "I just feel that if so many people are talking about me I should tell them I'm not an 'it', that it's not 'banter', it's very detrimental to my character and whoever leaked that should be punished."

Keys has maintained a relatively low profile since joining TalkSport just two weeks after the Sky Sports sexism row, although he and Gray picked up a Sony award for best sports programme for their radio show last month.

He apologised at the time for what he described as "prehistoric banter".

BSkyB declined to comment.

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